The One Thing You Can’t Lose When You Fail

Failure is one thing we all face. It comes at us in our careers, our family, and our faith.

It pulls at us and tears us down. Telling us that we’re worthless now. That we won’t do anything of value.

Failure brings about lies and feelings of inadequacy.

But there’s one thing you can’t lose when you fail…

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Image by Don Hankins

What Failure Tells Us

When we fail, we want to run and hide. To stick our heads in the sand like an ostrich. In all honesty, that makes us look silly.

Why do we want to do this?

Because failure lies to us. It says that we’ve screwed up beyond hope. We’re told that there’s no redeeming value in our lives.

The biggest lie failure tells us is that we’ve lost our identity.

Thank goodness it’s a lie. Your identity doesn’t come from a project, a relationship, or a title.

Why You Must Hold Onto Your Identity

The doubts about our identities will begin to rise when we fail. We become so attached to what we’re doing, we often forget our work is not our identity.

Our identity is unique. It’s attached to ME and to YOU. It’s who we are inside.

It’s not an event we’ve experienced. It’s not something we do. It’s not affected by outside forces.

That is why we must be willing to hold onto our identity. And not let failure claim who we are.

How To Hold Onto Your Identity

With the lies failure tells us, it can be easy to doubt ourselves. The waves of doubt rush over us. Crushing us at times.

This is why you need a plan to hold onto your identity.

  • Decide who you are: Create a written description of who you are. Write down who you believe yourself to be. Describe the what you do. Describe where you’re headed. Let it be known who you are. With this written out, you’re able to refer back to it after a bad business decision. You’ll be able to see that the failure doesn’t claim your identity.
  • Create reminders of who you are: Take note of your successes and desires. Keep them in a place you can refer to when a failure happens. They will be guideposts to get you back on track when you’re questioning who you are. Use them and use them frequently.

Holding onto your identity will save you tons of grief as you progress through life. You’ll be able to see that failure is an event, not a person. And it’s definitely not you.

Being knowledgeable about your identity, failure will be a distraction not a life killer.

You’ll be able to move after failures and still succeed.

Question: How has a failure affected your identity? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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